The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:Originally posted by JAYNEZTOWN:

Itchy and Scratchy robots go rogue and begin attacking humans?

The reverse: rogue humans attacking robots.

This is actually the second TV series spawned by the film Westworld. The first, Beyond Westworld, emerged in 1980 and lasted just five episodes. The new one is already a huge deal: the first episode aired in the States on Sunday night, and was HBO’s biggest series debut in three years.

The basic plot hasn’t changed: Westworld is a theme park populated by state-of-the art androids. Human customers come to live out their wild west fantasies, interacting with the cyborg locals, mostly by either killing them or having sex with them. Or both. At the end of the holiday, the blood gets cleared up, the locals are repaired, and the whole narrative is re-booted for the next wave of visitors.

Even if you’ve never seen the original, you will not be surprised to hear that the behind-the-scenes operation sets characters who claim the technology is failsafe against others who think it’s only a matter of time before something goes badly wrong. It’s basically Jurassic Park (which was based on a book by Michael Crichton, who wrote and directed the original Westworld), but with robots in cowboy hats instead of dinosaurs.

Here’s what’s different: in the original movie, the theme park was a revolutionary new leisure attraction. In the reboot, Westworld is 30 years old and struggling to keep the visitor experience fresh. The robots are constantly updated with nuanced emotions, gestures and back stories. They’re capable of participating in increasingly flexible narrative permutations. And don’t expect them to pull off their faces to reveal the circuitry behind. These “hosts”, as they are known, are all 3D-printed sinew. If they weren’t happy to let flies walk across their eyeballs, you couldn’t tell they weren’t human.

Also: in the 1973 film the visitors were the protagonists, flawed but human, in over their heads in a malfunctioning cyberworld. In the series, the guests are reduced to the role of extras – desensitized repeat customers on the fringe of the narrative. In fact, that’s how you can tell they’re the humans. “The first time I played it white-hat,” says one to another on the train ride in. “Family was there, we went fishing, did the gold hunt in the mountains.” On his second visit, he says, he came alone. “Went straight evil. Best two weeks of my life.”

This time around, the heroes are the robots: they are so sophisticated they have reached the level of incipient consciousness, but they’re still referred to as “livestock” backstage. The suffering they endure – every day in Westworld is like a grisly Groundhog Day for the robots – is uncomfortably real, and, thanks to a technical glitch to do with the most recent update – their memories aren’t being completely wiped.

There are so many ideas at work that Westworld might easily have succumbed to its own complications, but it rips along, aided by a top-notch cast that includes Anthony Hopkins, Thandie Newton and Ed Harris, who seems to be the sadistic human counterpart to Yul Brynner’s 1973 robot gunslinger.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Westworld (2016) went where Westworld (1973) went: a robot finally killed a human. But there was something new:

Select to view spoiler:

a human giving the kill order. It definitely was not the robot’s secret desire. There are many robots that could plead justifiable homicide of many humans deserving death. But this particular robot will mourn the victim and the victim did not deserve to die. The two robot repair technicians are Sylvester and Felix. Those are cartoon cat names. Felix’s last name is Lutz. Clutz is someone who is extremely careless, stupid and a hazard to be around. Is Felix Lutz a Clutz? Maybe. He has done something hazardous, it just hasn’t killed him yet. I shouted at him, “Don’t, Felix!” Then I had to say, “Oops, sorry I said that out loud.” It did make the Westworld more fun.

I had forgotten that Crichton has wrote this, and so long ago. 2 things strike me about this...

He was an absolute genius. Gifted with a vision most of us can't even fathom. His personal life may not have been all that much to praise, but he clearly was a talented , brilliant individual, in many areas.

A theme park where man plays god and things go horribly wrong. Ha ! Jurassic Park, anyone ? I find it fascinating that he used pretty much the same template to warn us about dabbling in matters we may not be ready for, as our technology advances by leaps and bounds.

I was hesitant in watching this series, for a few reasons, but having given in , I am impressed. A bit slow at times, early on, I suspect things will pick up, as the story progresses. In fact, it's already started picking up, at the conclusion of the last episode.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:Originally posted by AURaptor:

A theme park where man plays god and things go horribly wrong. Ha ! Jurassic Park, anyone ? I find it fascinating that he used pretty much the same template to warn us about dabbling in matters we may not be ready for, as our technology advances by leaps and bounds.

The men do more than play God. The park is creating immortality.

Eventually the mysterious corporation behind the park will be placing the minds of real humans into artificial bodies that never grow old, never get cancer. For now, the prototypes have minds running TV show screenplays designed to demonstrate the concept with fake memories and fake personalities taken from Westerns such as Gunsmoke, Bonanza and Rawhide.

Next step is real memories duplicating real people and their real personalities. Those real people being duplicated as conscious, feeling, immortal thinking machines will pay for their immortality on their deathbed.

I guess the only draw back to making us into immortal machines would be... what, exactly ? That only the super rich would be able to 'transform', as it were, and there'd need to be a perpetual underclass of regular humans, to maintain and upkeep the new overlords ?

Meh. If the pay's good, and we get free wifi, what could go wrong ?

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:Originally posted by AURaptor:

I guess the only draw back to making us into immortal machines would be... what, exactly ?

That Dr. Robert Ford, PhD. (Anthony Hopkins) has your password and he can turn you into his personal puppet and you won't remember? Or that Maeve Millay, the Madam, has also stolen the password to your immortal body and she is far smarter and meaner than Ford will ever be?

So, is Maeve the real heroine here, and not so much Deloris ? Or are they different puppets , being played by the same ( now dead ) puppet master ?

I'm trying to make sense of how Ford goes from Overlord almighty to falling on his sword and releasing all hell. Was that the plan all along ? Or did the Board's pushing him out force his hand ? Just seems to me that he'd have fallen back to that cabin w/ the old version hosts, and let the newer ones run amok on the board members, humans, etc...

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